Yesterday we saw another sad reminder that we do not live in a post-racial society. White supremacist James Von Brunn, 88, entered the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC and killed an African-American security guard before being shot himself. This is of course a tragic event, but there is something even more dangerous about this event that the press isn’t talking about. Because this act of violence is an obvious display of white supremacy, society ignores the less aggressive forms of racism. White supremacy is simply the belief that white people are better than other “races” of people. But simply because people who believe in white supremacy don’t actually kill non-white people it doesn’t mean that white supremacy doesn’t exist. There are several levels of racism and white supremacy. When people believe stereotypes about people outside of their social group, this is prejudice that can lead to beliefs of superiority.

It is because of the openly violent American or German white supremacist that verbally expresses his hatred of non-whites that makes many Brazilians believe that racism doesn’t exist in their country. But the truth is, there are millions of people in Brazil and other countries that accept the idea of white people being the most attractive, intellectually superior people on the planet and the belief in these ideas are the basis of white supremacy. I always read in online forums the opinions of many Brazilians who always write something like, “Brazil never had the Ku Klux Klan or white supremacy groups that killed blacks, so it is America that is the racist country.” There is no denial that at its peak in the 1920s, the KKK had a membership of more than 4 million people in the United States. It is also true that the objective of the KKK was to represent the interests of white Americans against blacks, Jews and other non-whites through violence, intimidation and lynching. As a clandestine, vigilante group, the clan is known to wear white robes and masks. According to many sources, there are and have been many Brazilian organizations that have similar ideologies.

In the 1930s, the Brazilian Integralist Action (AIB) had a membership estimated to be between 600 thousand and 1 million. And although there were important differences between German Nazis and Italian Fascists, there were also similarities. There were different factions and beliefs within the AIB. Under the leadership of journalist Plínio Salgado, the Integralists accepted black members. But there was also the radical side of the Integralists led by Gustavo Barroso who was the leader of the more extreme faction of the Integralists. Barroso led the militia of the Integralists and was extremely anti-Semitic, as were many members of the Integralists, which often led to violent attacks against blacks. Barroso, like Vonn Brun and others, believed Jewish bankers were part of an international Jewish conspiracy. Integralists, like the KKK and the American Nazi Party, defended Christianity and authoritarianism, opposed Communism, but they didn’t accept Capitalism.

Adolph Hitler, German Nazism/Nazismo Alemão

Like the KKK, the Nazis and the Fascists, the AIB also preached the superiority of the white race and that the “Brazilian race” needed improvement. This Brazilian brand of nationalism differed from German Nazism and Italian Fascism in that instead of preaching against miscegenation, the objective was the “improvement” of the Brazilian people through miscegenation and the eventual elimination of “inferior” races like indigenous peoples and blacks. Thus, Brazilian Integralism shared the Brazilian elite ideology of whitening the population in the same manner that the American Nazi party and KKK preached racial purity supported by an American elite system of racial segregation. So although Brazilian Integralism preached the “union of all races and all peoples”, its ultimate objective was to integrate racial and ethnic groups, physically and culturally, into dominant white Christian values culture with the eventual elimination of non-white cultures and peoples.

Benito Mussolini, Italian Fascism/Fascismo Italiano

Because of the widespread nature of miscegenation in Brazilian society, the integralistas avoided the adaptation of openly racist discourse while maintaining its future objective of white supremacy through the elimination of non-white Brazilians. The Integralists simultaneously preached anti-Semitism and racial fusion and maintained close relations with the Brazilian branch of the Nazi party. Although the Nazi party provided financial support for the Integralists, the Integralist ideology of racial fusion was a key point of irreconcilable differences with the Nazis. Today, in Brazil, as in America, there exists different factions of Skinhead, neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, with Brazilian death squads and military police seemingly dedicated to the elimination of the black and poor population.